A Few Upcoming Releases...

A few bits and bobs I've been meaning to cover...

Publishing Schedules:

Via SFScope: Editorial Director Lou Anders has posted Pyr's list of upcoming Fall/Winter 2008/2009 books. Some of those upcoming books include book 3 of Joe Abercrombie's The First Law; book 3 of Justina Robson's Quantum Gravity; book 1 of Tom Lloyd's Twilight Reign; Anders's own Fast Forward 2 (the original anthology); book 2 of Sean Williams's Books of the Cataclysm; Mike Resnick's newest Starship book; and books 2 and 3 of Kay Kenyon's The Entire and the Rose. In fact, of the ten books listed, it looks like there is only one original, stand-alone novel (of course, only time will tell): End of the Century by Chris Roberson. The other book on the list that isn't part of a series is Ian McDonald's Cyberabad Days, which is a new collection of eight stories which include one Hugo nominee and one Hugo winner, and a 25,000-word original novella.

Good stuff!

I'm shamefully behind on my reviews of some Pyr books I've had for a bit too long; but reviews will be coming soon. It has been arranged. (Muahaha, as they say). I'm very keen to catch up on books I've neglected, and I was shocked by how many Pyr titles are waiting for their review -- and a read, in some cases. It's really stupid of me since all the Pyr titles I've read so far, I have loved. A very good imprint.

Sam Smith has also posted Orbit UK's Autumn 2008 publishing schedule out, and there are some good titles there, too, though like Pyr, many are the continuations of earlier Orbit series. Nonetheless, good stuff! :) Titles include: Terry Brooks' The Gypsy Morph; Karen Miller's The Riven Kingdom; Ian Irvine's The Destiny of the Dead; Jo Graham's Black Ships; David Farland's Worldbinder; Pamela Freeman's Deep Water; and more: books by Jennifer Fallon, Jacqueline Carey, Russell Kirkpatrick, Charles Stross, Marienne de Pierres, Kelley Armstrong, Shaun Hutson, Lillith Saintcrow, Jennifer Rardin and Patricia Briggs.

That is a lot of books! I currently have one of them, and the current schedule is awesome enough that by the time I've finished reading them, the Autumn 2009 schedule will be here! ;)

Acquisitions:

Orbit are also thrilled to announce the acquisition of Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera sequence in a major four book deal. Jim Butcher is the bestselling and critically-acclaimed author of the Dresden Files series, featuring wizard-detective, Harry Dresden, which has sold over 150,000 copies for Orbit and was recently televised by the SciFi Channel.

The Codex Alera is a series of epic fantasy novels set in a world where courage and ingenuity may yet triumph over magic and power. For a thousand years, the people of Alera have united against the aggressive races that inhabit the world, using their unique bond with the furies - elementals of earth, air, fire, water, and metal. But now, Gaius Sextus, First Lord of Alera, grows old and lacks an heir. Ambitious Lords manoeuvre to place their Houses in positions of power, and a war of succession looms on the horizon.

Far from city politics in the Calderon Valley, young Tavi struggles with his lack of furycrafting. At fifteen, he has no wind fury to help him fly, no fire fury to light his lamps. Yet as the Alerans’ most savage enemy - the Marat - return to the Valley, his world will change. Caught in a storm of deadly wind furies, Tavi saves the life of a runaway slave. But Amara is actually a spy, seeking intelligence on possible Marat traitors to the Crown. And when the Valley erupts into chaos - when rebels war with loyalists and furies clash with furies - Amara will find Tavi invaluable. His talents will outweigh any fury-born power - and could even turn the tides of war.

The Codex Alera series will start with Furies of Calderon, to be published by Orbit in summer 2009...

Technohorror author and horror industry entertainment journalist Gabrielle S. Faust announces the release of the first novel in her apocalyptic vampire series, Eternal Vigilance, Book One: From Deep Within the Earth, by publisher Immanion Press (Stafford, UK), owned and operated by legendary fantasy author Storm Constantine.

Eternal Vigilance (April 21st release), described as “if Anne Rice went cyberpunk”, is the futuristic tale of the vampire Tynan Llywelyn. After a century of Sleep, Tynan has awoken to find the world he once knew utterly obliterated by a brutal war of epic proportions. In a new apocalyptic society, bitterly divided by magic and technology, the Tyst Empire has found that a hundred years of global domination is not enough to sate their thirst for power. They have discovered the secret of the vampire race and have designed a plan to seize their own sinister form of immortality with the help of an ancient vampiric god. The Phuree, a rebel uprising that has been engaged in a bloody war with the Tyst since the beginning of the new regime, have obtained the knowledge of Lord Cardone's plans and have allied themselves with the remaining Immortal clan. The powerful Phuree oracle, Nahalo, has had a vision that in Tynan alone lays the power to defeat the vampiric god and the dictatorship. Cast into the midst of a global war between magic and technology, mortals and vampires, in a new world he is still struggling to define, Tynan must make the harrowing decision to save the world he so bitterly detests or stand and watch as humanity is destroyed by a primordial evil beyond all imagining.

And gorgeous artwork! This looks like a very cool book, and after a quick perusal of the author's website, this has gone up high on my "must get" list.

Awards:

The Nebula winners are in:

Best Novel: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
Best Novella: "Fountain of Age" by Nancy Kress
Best Novelette: "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang
Best Short Story: "Always" by Karen Joy Fowler
Best Script: Pan's Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro


That's really all I have time for now. I'm off Waking the Dead. The last time I said that someone asked "some kind of witch are you?" Erm. No. Never really very good at that whole dread necromancer thing! It's a TV series -- and not some strange re-vivification documentary, either!